Bloc Party has released a new song called “The Girls Are Fighting,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, Alpha Games.
“I think ‘The Girls Are Fighting’ is kind of self-explanatory — someone’s been selling dreams to someone they shouldn’t have and it’s caught up with them,” says frontman Kele Okereke. “I just wanted to capture that moment of going from naught to ten in an evening, in a sweaty nightclub.”
You can download “The Girls Are Fighting” now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video, which takes things from the club to the boxing ring, is streaming now on YouTube.
Alpha Games, the follow-up to 2016’s Hymns, arrives April 29. It also includes the previously released single “Traps.”
Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Caesars Entertainment
More stars are lining up to perform during Super Bowl Weekend including Usher, Gunna and Lil Baby.
Usher will sing at the invitation-only Chairman’s Party on Saturday, February 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, site of the Super Bowl to be played on Sunday, February 13. The eight-time Grammy winner performed with the Black Eyed Peas during the Super Bowl 45 halftime show in 2011.
Gunna, whose new album, DS4Ever, debuted last week at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, will hit the stage with Lil Baby at the DirecTV/Maxim party on Friday, February 11 at City Market LA.
As previously reported, Drake will headline the h.wood Group “Homecoming” party on February 12 at the Pacific Design Center. The Champagne Papi will perform one night after his mentor, Lil Wayne, who signed him to the Young Money Entertainment label in 2009, headlines Shaquille O’Neal‘s “Shaq’s Fun House” party on February 11 at the Shrine Auditorium.
The shows by Usher, Gunna, Lil Baby, Drake and Lil Wayne will lead up to the main event, Super Bowl 56, featuring Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige performing for the first time together during halftime.
Last week, U2‘s Bono made headlines by saying on a podcast that he feels “embarrassed” and “cringe” at the sound of his voice on the radio. But now he’s clarified that it’s not that he doesn’t like his voice — he just doesn’t like how it sounds on the band’s early records.
Speaking to Variety, Bono explains, “I’m used to those songs live. I love the recordings, as far as [the band] is concerned. But when I hear my voice, I just hear the fragility of it.”
He continues, “Live, when it happens, the songs are singing you. It’s the most incredible, miraculous thing. And something like ‘Pride (In the Name of Love),’ which I find particularly excruciating when I hear it [on record]…I sing that on stage and I sing it for everybody. Something is going on there that I have very little to do with.”
However, guitarist Edge disagrees, telling Variety, “I love Bono’s singing on those early records. The vulnerability is part of it.”
Bono and Edge also discuss the fact that they’re shortlisted for an Oscar nomination for “Your Song Saved My Life,” which they wrote for the animated film Sing 2. Their competition includes tracks by Billie Eilish, Van Morrison and Beyonce, which Edge says are “maybe the best array of original songs in the last five years.”
“Whoever wins I think will be a worthy winner — and I hope it’s us. But it’s going to be hard to even get nominated, I think,” notes the guitarist. But Bono insists, “We want to win! We don’t want to come in second. All those people who appreciate songwriting, and the truth behind it, the truth behind the tale, I hope they’re gonna show up for us.”
Two days before his death — September 16, 1970 — Jimi Hendrix showed up unannounced at famed London jazz club Ronnie Scott’s and got onstage with Eric Burdon and War. Now we’re able to hear that performance — his last one ever — in a new documentary called Ronnie‘s.
The doc tells the history of saxophonist Ronnie Scott and his club, which opened in 1959 and became one of the most famous musical venues in London. The film features previously unseen and unheard performances by music icons like Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie, as well as rockers like Van Morrison.
The audio from a bootleg tape of the Hendrix performance, as well as interviews with the people who were there that night, are also included. As War guitarist Howard E. Scott relates in a clip from the film, that night at Ronnie’s, the band has started playing a blues cover called “Mother Earth” when he saw Jimi coming towards the stage, guitar in hand.
“Jimi lit into a guitar solo, I mean, me and Jimi were just cuttin’ the place up, we were tearin’ it up, just me and him, back and forth, back and forth…great night,” Scott recalls. “The next night, we got word that after the set, Jimi had died. It was a terrible, terrible thought right then, that I was the last guitarist to play with him.”
You can watch an excerpt from the movie that includes the audio at Rolling Stone. Ronnie’s opens in select theaters and on-demand on February 11.
Volbeat will miss their show with Ghost Friday in Nampa, Idaho, due to drummer Jon Larsen testing positive for COVID-19.
“Jon is asymptomatic and feeling fine,” the Danish rockers write in an Instagram post. “We’re hopeful he will be back behind the kit soon.”
The show is part of Volbeat’s ongoing co-headlining tour with Ghost, which just kicked off earlier this week. Ghost and opener Twin Temple will still play tonight, though Volbeat fans who no longer wish to attend may receive a refund at point of purchase.
Volbeat plans to return to the tour for Saturday’s show in Portland with former Slayer drummer Jon Dette taking over for Larsen until he’s “cleared to return.”
Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, BTS, Halsey, Glass Animals and more are all nominated for the 2022 NME Awards, handed out by the famed British music publication NME.
Halsey, who’ll receive the Innovation Award the night of the ceremony, is also up for Best Album in the World for If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power. Olivia and BTS are both up for Best Song in the World for, respectively, “good 4 u” and “Butter.” The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber‘s “Stay,” Lorde‘s “Solar Power” and Charli XCX‘s “Good Ones” are also nominated in that category.
Billie and Megan Thee Stallion are among the nominees for Best Festival Headliner, while Glass Animals and Måneskin are up for Best Band in the World. Glass Animals is also nominated for Best Band from the UK.
The Best Solo Act in the World category includes Billie and The Weeknd, while Olivia is in the Best New Act in the World Category. Coldplay and BTS’ song “My Universe” is up for Best Collaboration.
And in the Best Music Video category, Taylor Swift‘s 10-minute short film version of “All Too Well” is going up against Billie’s “Happier Than Ever” and Lil Nas X‘s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” among others.
The 2022 NME Awards take place March 2 in London. For more info, visit NME.com.
The Beatles & friends with the Maharishi in India, 1968; Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The Beatles and India, a documentary which examines how Indian music and culture shaped the band’s music, will start streaming February 15 on BritBox.
The documentary features recordings, pictures and interviews to detail both George Harrison‘s lifelong devotion to Indian music, which he discovered in 1965, and its effect on The Beatles’ subsequent recordings. It also explores the Beatles’ role in popularizing Indian culture and Transcendental Meditation, following their 1968 journey to Rishikesh, India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The documentary was named Best Film: Audience Choice and Best Music at the 2021 UK Asian Film Festival.
An accompanying soundtrack, called The Beatles and India: Songs Inspired by the Film, features 19 Beatles songs recorded by Indian artists, including Anoushka Shankar, the daughter of Harrison’s musical mentor Ravi Shankar.
Many of the songs included on the soundtrack — “Dear Prudence,” “Sexy Sadie,” “Mother Nature’s Son,” “Back in the USSR” and “I Will” among them — were written while the Beatles were in India and later ended up on their 1968 self-titled album, aka The White Album.
Dierks Bentley has thoughts on masking rules in schools, and he’s taking to Instagram to share his viewpoints and hear from fans.
On Friday, the singer posted a screenshot of the headline of a New York Times opinion piece, which is titled “Let Kids Take Their Masks Off After the Omicron Surge.” Written by columnist Michelle Goldberg, the article navigates the downside of long-term masking of children, and calls for a removal of mask mandates in schools after the current COVID-19 surge ends, even if future mandates have to be implemented in the future.
Dierks didn’t offer any lengthy thoughts on the issue, aside from writing “Seems like common sense” in the caption, and asking fans for their thoughts.
In addition to being a country superstar, Dierks is a father of three. His kids range in age from eight to 13 years old, so all of them are currently in school.
In musical news, Dierks has been teasing a new album that he’s working on for 2022. His current single is “Beers on Me,” a duet with Hardy and Breland.
As Ella Mai celebrates her 2018 debut single, “Boo’d Up,” being certified seven-times platinum, she dropped her new single, “DFMU,” on Friday. This is the Grammy winner’s first single since “Not Another Love Song” in 2020. In the video, the English singer takes a ride with her man, and they make love in the back seat. The car literally submerges in a body of water, and Ella swims to safety.
Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J are collaborating again as they dropped their new single, “Backseat,” featuring ProjectPat. The track is from the upcoming joint album from Khalifa and the Three 6 Mafia member which is scheduled to be released in February. The duo dropped “Pop That Trunk” in December, and previously recorded together on “Gah Damn High” off Juicy’s The Hustle Continues album in 2020.
NBA Youngboy is not allowing his house arrest in Utah to stop his creativity as he awaits trial for weapons charges. He dropped his 17th mixtape, Colors, on January 20, and now he’s collaborated with Da Baby for the video for their new track, “Hit.”
Finally, Quavo has followed up his 2021 “Strub Tha Ground” collabo with Yung Miami with his new song, “Shooters Inside My Crib.” The track is expected to be on the Migos member’s long-awaited follow-up to Quavo Huncho, his 2018 debut solo album. Quavo says his second solo project will drop later this year.
Britney Spears‘ ongoing legal drama intensified this week after the lawyer for her father, Jamie Spears, requested she sit for a deposition. The irony is Mr. Spears has resisted her legal team’s request to do the same.
TMZ obtained copies of an email allegedly sent by Mr. Spears’ attorney, Alex Weingarten, that states his intent to have Britney be deposed.
The email was sent Wednesday to the “Toxic” singer’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, and it states, “We write to advise that we intend to depose your client and would like to discuss a mutually agreeable date to conduct the deposition.”
“Of course, we will also discuss scheduling Mr. Spears’ deposition with you and work with you to find a mutually agreeable date for that to proceed as well,” the letter continued. The proposal says Jamie Spears will be first to sit for a deposition and, soon after, Britney will follow suit.
Attorney Weingarten apparently proposed for the back to back depositions to be set in March, which will either be conducted during the same week or a day apart from one another. The letter adds, “If we have not heard from you regarding these matters by the close of business on Friday, February 4, 2022, we will proceed unilaterally.”
It is unknown what questions Britney would be asked, should she be deposed. Since her bombshell testimony in June, she leveled numerous accusations against her family, some serious in nature. Britney has also regularly spoken out against her family since her conservatorship was terminated in November, which means she could be asked to clarify her remarks.
Attorney Rosengart previously expressed he wants to depose Jamie Spears and have him speak on record about potential mismanagement of the conservatorship, especially on its finances following allegations the patriarch abused it for personal gain.
